The X-Files Sequel: Why Won’t You Die?

It never fails to surprise me when I see once-extinct franchises getting re-animated — you think they’re dead, then somebody finds a scrap of intact DNA trapped in amber, and before you know it you’re back to the box office all over again. Arrogant fools — have we not learned to leave Mother Nature alone? I thought the rumors of a new X-Files movie were just that, rumors, but this post on Ain’t It Cool, referencing a post on Gillian Anderson’s personal website, gives the idea some weight. The pertinent quote has to do with whether she and David Duchovny got along on the X-Files set:

Did David and I hate each other? At times yes like any brother and sister, husband and wife, co-worker and co-worker forced to spend that much time together under such strenuous circumstances.

Do we hate each other now? Not in the least.

Do I imagine that when we do the film together we won’t hate each other for a few hours during the filming? No. We will. Vehemently. As David waits patiently, again and again for the hair dryer to calm my frizzy hair between takes so it matches the beginning of the scene… he will undoubtedly be thinking “what the hell was I thinking agreeing to shoot with her f****** frizzy hair again?”

So wow, another X-Files movie? I don’t know if I’m ready. My crush on that franchise went dormant in the mid-late 1990’s, a sunny, prosperous time when it was genuinely fresh and amusing to play with the idea that conspiracy theories might be true. Now, with all the chilly geopolitical realities of the aught-decade upon us, I’m just not sure that game is fun anymore. Prove me wrong, kids.